Hervé Renard’s popularity has clearly not been affected by the failure of the Bleues at the Olympic Games. Because while Thierry Henry’s troops managed to win a nice silver medal in the men’s tournament, only losing in extra time to Spain, the French women’s team was left with a new disappointment, losing in the quarter-finals against Brazil despite clearly dominating. However, Hervé Renard still makes fans dream.
On Thursday, many people called for his arrival, whether in Algeria or Saudi Arabia. Because if the Fennecs finally got the better of Equatorial Guinea (2-0), taking advantage to take the lead in Group E in the CAN qualifiers, they had to wait until the 69e minute to open the scoring and the performance of Vladimir Petkovic’s troops was clearly not convincing. And this despite the great return of Riyad Mahrez, who also missed a penalty in the first half.
Roberto Mancini in the hot seat
“Honestly, we’re not going anywhere with this team. Fire Pekovic and hire Hervé Renard”, “Okay, call me Hervé Renard there”, “Hervé Renard is available”, “Hervé Renard, are you there”, “It’s soporific… Can’t we get rid of Petkovic and bring back Hervé Renard?”, “It’s never too late to take Hervé Renard”, “Hervé Renard, come back please”… These were some of the messages posted on Twitter as Algeria battled to win.
But Algerian fans are not the only ones calling for Hervé Renard to take over. The same is true in Saudi Arabia, where many fans are dreaming of his return, as the team began its 2026 World Cup qualifiers with a 1-1 draw against Indonesia. This has earned Roberto Mancini severe criticism, as he is being called for his departure to make way for the white-shirted coach.
